Category Archives: detective fiction

“That’s the life of a detailed man. You never have anything of your own. Everything’s borrowed. Even the time.” Detective Simeon is this detailed man. The author, David Swinson, has himself worked robbery and homicide details. Some readers may wonder … Continue reading →

Requiem auf den Kriminalroman: This was Dürrenmatt’s own subtitle for his short and stunning novel, Das Versprechen [The Pledge] (1958). It has no place in Sean Penn’s film version of the book though this did keep the title, The Pledge … Continue reading →

When Julian Barnes, 2011 winner of the Man Booker Prize, was asked (2006) whether the readers of Arthur and George expected him to name the culprit in that novel, he replied, “Well, one or two were disappointed that they didn’t … Continue reading →

“What will William Ryan do with Korolev’s dilemma, as the 30s in the Soviet Union grind on into more and more terrible times?” This was the question I asked at the end of my recent review of William Ryan’s first … Continue reading →

Fallada’s 1946 novel, Jeder stirbt für sich allein recently acquired best-seller status in the English-speaking world through the translation of Michael Hofmann in the new Melville House edition, Every Man Dies Alone. It was based right after the war on … Continue reading →

Reading William Ryan’s The Holy Thief and getting to know Captain Alexei Dmitriyevich Korolev of the Moscow Criminal Investigation Division set me to thinking about the role of a police detective in a totalitarian state, often called a “police state.” … Continue reading →

Longest Running Cozy in the World: Agatha Christie’s Mousetrap has been running uninterruptedly in London since November 25, 1952. Last night I saw it here in the Kriminaltheater in Berlin. This theater, with its repertoire of murder mystery plays, from … Continue reading →